Compliance Management, Malware, Privacy

ACLU asks why FBI unleashed malware on TorMail users, court filing

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Did the FBI infect users of a free email service with malware? That's the question the ACLU would like answered.

Lawyers for the civil liberties group filed a motion in a Maryland court seeking to unseal docket sheets "connected with a warrant to use the malware on users of TorMail," according to The Hill. The service is popular with journalists and activists as it anonymizes communications.

In July 2013, the FBI seized the Freedom Hosting Network, which housed TorMail along with other sites, in a sweep looking for child pornography. The FBI then carried out a Network Investigative Technique (NIT). That is, it loaded malware on the network.

The ACLU is asking who else besides the porn sites were caught up in the probe and, in its filing, said the sealing of the docket "prevents the public from learning or confirming even the most basic facts about the deployment of malware for law-enforcement purposes."

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